I thought local video stores had gone extinct long ago because of chains like Blockbuster.

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There are still a ton of mom n' pop video rental stores in most big North American cities, if you look around; Toronto still has a lot of those ever since Rogers Communications exited the retailing of physical media last year (mostly in the downtown sections of Old Toronto.) My favourite store is Queen Video, which has three locations in downtown Toronto alone (we also have RedBox kiosks in grocery stores.)

My Blockbuster also bought out the previous rental store - Alfalfa video. I was always amused by the story that the actor who played Spanky on Our Gang founded the business and named it in honor of his friend's alter ego Alfalfa. I never tried to confirm it; it made enough sense to me.

Now I miss Suncoast and blockbuster. I like walking around and looking at products, buying some of the tie in items as they catch my eye.

Damn this downloadable world.

Well, I can still hear well on my land line.

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Oh, yeah, I miss Suncoast. We only had one, and it was 25 miles from where I lived, but on the ultra rare occasions when we would go there, you could find almost anything there. I found a copy of "Spaceballs" the VHS Tape, for something like $13. I snapped that up tout suite.

Oh, yeah, I miss Suncoast. We only had one, and it was 25 miles from where I lived, but on the ultra rare occasions when we would go there, you could find almost anything there. I found a copy of "Spaceballs" the VHS Tape, for something like $13. I snapped that up tout suite.

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You could always find stuff at Suncoast because they cost like 25-75% more than at other stores.

Stores in the mall that sell movies and music are still like that. I peeked into and FYE recently and they were selling a Blu-ray movie for like $45 that you could get off Amazon for $15.

Generally try to get movies on sale from Wal-Mart for the most part, but now and then I go to Family Video and rent something from there, just to give them some business. Not everyone likes to get videos from Red box. Not to mention there's more selection in store.

Oh, yeah, I miss Suncoast. We only had one, and it was 25 miles from where I lived, but on the ultra rare occasions when we would go there, you could find almost anything there. I found a copy of "Spaceballs" the VHS Tape, for something like $13. I snapped that up tout suite.

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You could always find stuff at Suncoast because they cost like 25-75% more than at other stores.

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True, and in my area, the stuff you could find at Suncoast often wasn't available any place else.

Suncoast liked it that way.

It doesn't matter now though, the last Suncoast in our area closed almost a year ago.

The thing about Netflix is, it doesn't always have the exact same selection that Blockbuster did, and you have to wait to get DVDs. Blockbuster was good to have around as a supplement, an alternative source that could occasionally provide titles Netflix lacked or at least make them available immediately instead of days later.

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???

In my experience, Blockbuster was only useful if all you ever wanted to watch was, well, blockbusters. You were lucky if they had one section of classics or even one shelf of foreign. (And if you wanted that foreign film to be from any country but France or Japan, you're SOL). They got 200 copies of big budget explosion film #36692 and 1 max of anything indie. Netflix on the other hand has practically anything that's ever had a region 1 release.

In my experience, Blockbuster was only useful if all you ever wanted to watch was, well, blockbusters. You were lucky if they had one section of classics or even one shelf of foreign. (And if you wanted that foreign film to be from any country but France or Japan, you're SOL). They got 200 copies of big budget explosion film #36692 and 1 max of anything indie. Netflix on the other hand has practically anything that's ever had a region 1 release.

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Well, one can't generalize. I often found that Blockbuster had new releases available before I could get them from Netflix. Indeed, isn't there usually a 1-month delay between when a DVD goes on sale and when Netflix gets it? At least there used to be.

And yes, the majority of the time, Netflix had anything Blockbuster did and more, but there were some cases where BB had things I couldn't find on Netflix. And as I said, I could rent them immediately rather than having to wait days for them to come in the mail. Not to mention that I only pay for the one-DVD-at-a-time tier of Netflix, while BB let me rent multiple DVDs at once.

So yes, for me, it was useful to have both options available. They complemented each other. Diversity is good. Monopoly is bad.

That said--having worked for them--I was never happier to quit a job than I was when I quit there. It was a miserable experience; not just at the store level, but at every level of the company that I had an experience with.

In all seriousness, it took a month or two for the stores here to close after they stopped renting. They were selling off all the inventory (and not at great discounts) before closing for good.

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Come to think of it, I remember that happening when my local Blockbuster closed last year. Although they didn't close due to their business declining, but because the neighboring supermarket bought out the stores behind it so that it could expand -- something it still hasn't begun doing, even though all those stores were torn down. I guess they ran out of money for the project or something.

There are lots of dead malls all over the place. The big thing now is to force you to walk outside in the elements. We used to have Eastwoodmall, with an Alladin's Castle game room, people would jog indoors--a real community atmosphere, like what I see in Birmingham Post Offices, which will be the next victims of i-crap.

I don't mind kids having their wireless nonsense--just don't take what is close to me willya? Almost makes me want an EMP just to see teenage girls spaz out from no service with me saying "I can live this way, can you?"

A local developer is trying to revitalize the nearby Towne mall. It's still used by older folks who want to go jogging outside in the elements (Mall technically opens at 9 AM, but joggers can come in around 8), but most of the stores are gone. I would love to see it brought up to date, with lots of stores, and shoppers, because it was a great mall in its heyday. Back in the mid to late 1990s, everyone was at the mall. They had an arcade, a food court, tons of shops (including the best shop, WaldenBooks), and around Christmas the decorations were arranged all around the fountain, which was 2 stories high.

Now, 3/4 of the shops are gone, and what's left are places you could find at a flea market. The fountain is gone. It was removed about 7 years ago, and the place looks sadder for its removal. There are virtually no people there. Even in the evening, when it should be bustling, you'll find perhaps 10, maybe 20, people there. It's all but abandoned.